Gene Kelly: His Movies Made Dance Popular in America
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: I'm Shirley Griffith.
STEVE EMBER: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about actor and dancer Gene Kelly. Experts say he did more than anyone else to make dance popular in America.
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Eugene Curran Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in nineteen twelve. His mother wanted all five of her children to play music and to dance. Gene was more interested in becoming an athlete. Yet he continued his dance lessons even as he became successful in sports. He said later that he never started out to be a dancer. He wanted to play professional baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. But, he said, he discovered girls liked his dancing.
STEVE EMBER: Gene Kelly graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in nineteen thirty-three. He started teaching at a dancing school. He also directed local plays and performed with his brother Fred.
He went to New York City in nineteen thirty-eight. He was twenty-seven years old. After dancing in a few Broadway shows, he got the lead part in the musical play "Pal Joey" in nineteen forty.
Critics in New York praised Gene Kelly for his ability to sing and dance, and at the same time, create a believable character on stage. Soon, he was offered work in Hollywood. He went to California in nineteen forty-one.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Gene Kelly's real success in movies began in nineteen forty-four. He and director Stanley Donen created a special dance for the movie "Cover Girl." In it, Gene Kelly appears to be dancing with himself. Cameras took pictures of him doing two dances separately. Then the two pictures were placed on a single piece of film. In the movie, two Gene Kellys seem to chase each other up and down steps, threaten each other, and leap over each other's heads.
Gene Kelly said later that he had made a huge discovery in that movie. He said dancing in a movie does not look the way it does on the stage. So he tried to do things differently for the movies. He tried to invent dance movements that were especially created for cameras.
STEVE EMBER: In nineteen forty-five, Gene Kelly first used a method of filming seen often today. He shared the movie screen with a drawing. In the movie "Anchors Aweigh", he appeared to dance with a cartoon mouse. It cost one hundred thousand dollars to film the eight- minute dance.
Gene Kelly danced first. Then cartoon artists filmed the drawings of the mouse's movements. The two films were combined into one. In the movie, Gene and the mouse are happily dancing and singing together.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Gene Kelly was part of another movie-making first in nineteen forty-nine. It happened in "On the Town." It was the first movie musical to be filmed in a real city. "On the Town" is about three sailors in New York. The movie shows sailors getting off their ship. Then they sing and dance through the city streets.
Musicals were normally filmed on sets built in Hollywood to look like other places. Gene said movie company officials at the time thought filming in the real city was crazy, but it worked. It changed movie musicals forever. Gene Kelly called "On the Town" his favorite movie. It opens with the song "New York, New York":
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: Some critics say Gene Kelly's greatest success was the nineteen fifty-one movie, "An American in Paris". It won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Gene won a special Oscar for his singing, dancing, acting and creating dances. The movie ended with a seventeen-minute ballet dance. It showed the effect of the city of Paris on the hero. In the ballet, Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron danced to George Gershwin's "An American in Paris":
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Many people think the best Gene Kelly movie of all is "Singin' in the Rain." Experts say "Singin' in the Rain" was the last of the great movie musicals. It was released in nineteen fifty-two. In one part, Gene Kelly sings the title song while he dances. It is considered one of the best movie scenes in history. In it, he shows how happy he is at the idea of being in love. He performs the song and dance while heavy rain falls on a lonely city street.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: Gene Kelly appeared in forty-five movies. He danced and sang. He acted in movies that were not musicals. He produced movies and directed them, too. He also directed musical plays on New York City's Broadway. He appeared on television, winning an Emmy Award for the show "Jack and the Beanstalk."
Gene Kelly was in the three "That's Entertainment" movies. In those movies, he worked with another great dancer, Fred Astaire. Fred Astaire was a movie star when Gene Kelly was just starting to dance.
Kelly said he was too big for the kind of dancing Astaire did so well. He said his kind of athletic dancing was better done in pants and a shirt than in the more formal clothes Astaire wore.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Gene Kelly died on February second, nineteen ninety-six following a series of strokes. He was eighty-three years old. He had been honored many times for his work. He was given awards by the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and the American Film Institute. The government of France gave him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. President Clinton gave him the American National Medal of Arts.
People said he had created a new kind of American dance by mixing modern, tap and ballet in an athletic way. Gene Kelly always said he was not that important. He said he really was just a song and dance man.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to People in America on the Voice of America.
(MUSIC)
单词注释：
athlete [5AWli:t] n. 运动员, 运动选手
critic [5kritik] n. 批评家, 评论家, 吹毛求疵者
chase [tFeis] vt. 追赶, 追逐, 雕镂
filming [5filmiN] n. 镀膜，摄影, 拍制，薄膜形成
anchor [5ANkE] n. 锚
aweigh [E5wei] adv. 离开海底
a series of 一连串的
Chevalier [7FevE5liE] n. 骑士, 爵士, 武士的随从
语言点分析：
start out 出发；迈出最初的几步
例句1：What time did you start out?
你是几点钟动身的？
例句2：Start out to write/with the intention of writing a novel.
动笔想写一部长篇小说。
leap over 使……越过障碍
例句：He leaps a horse over a fence.
他策马越过篱笆。
金·凯利：他的电影使舞蹈在美国红极一时
（音乐）
雪丽·葛里菲兹：我是雪丽·葛里菲兹。
史蒂夫·恩伯：我是史蒂夫·恩伯，这里是美国之音特别英语《美国人物》节目。我们每周都会谈论一位美国历史上的重要人物。今天，我们要谈的是演员和舞蹈家金·凯利。专家认为他对舞蹈在美国的流行所做的贡献比任何人都多。
（音乐）
雪丽·葛里菲兹：金·凯利于1912年出生于宾西法尼亚州的匹兹堡。他的母亲希望她的五个孩子都能歌会舞。但金更希望自己能成为一名运动员。尽管这样，即便在他的体育运动已经取得成功的时候，他也一直都在继续他的舞蹈课程。他后来说他从来没有努力要成为一个舞蹈家。他想成为“匹兹堡海盗队”的专业棒球队员。但是，他说他发现女孩子们喜欢看他跳舞。
史蒂夫·恩伯：金·凯利于1933年毕业于匹兹堡大学。毕业后，他开始在舞蹈学校当老师。他也指挥当地的表演，还和他的兄弟弗瑞德一起参加演出。
1938年金·凯利来到了纽约。那时候他27岁。1940年，在百老汇的几次舞蹈演出之后，他成了音乐剧《酒绿花红》中的主要演员。
纽约的评论家对金·凯利的歌声和舞蹈好评如潮，与此同时，舆论的肯定铸就了一个在舞台上自信的角色。很快他就进入了好莱坞。1941年，金去了加利福尼亚。
雪丽·葛里菲兹：金·凯利在电影上真正的成功开始于1944年。他和导演斯坦利·多耐为电影《封面女郎》制作了一个非常特别的舞蹈。在这部电影中，金·凯利与自己共舞。摄像机分别排下了他在两个舞蹈中的表演。然后这两张照片被放在胶卷的同一幕中。在电影中，两个金·凯利看上去就像在台阶上上下追逐，彼此威胁，并且还越过彼此的头部。
金·凯利后来说他在这部电影里有一个重大的发现。他说他在电影里跳舞的时候并没有看这个舞蹈在舞台上会是什么效果。所以他试着在电影里做一些比较特别的事情。他想特别针对摄像机创作舞蹈动作。
史蒂夫·恩伯：镀膜拍摄的手法在今天很常见，而金·凯利是在1945年第一个使用这种拍摄手法的人。他在电影屏幕中加入图片。在影片《翠风艳曲》中，他和一只卡通老鼠共舞。这一长度只有八分钟舞蹈花费了十万美元才拍摄下来。
电影中先是金·凯利的舞蹈，接着卡通艺术家出来了。两张胶卷组合成一张。等到电影放映这一幕的时候，呈现出来的就是金和老鼠在一起开心的唱歌跳舞的情景。
雪丽·葛里菲兹：金·凯利还是1949年的另一个电影制作首创的成员。这个制作首创出现在电影《锦城春色》里面。这是第一个在真实的城市里拍摄的电影音乐剧。电影《锦城春色》说的是纽约的三个水手。电影里的三个水手离开他们的船，然后在城市的街道上载歌载舞。
好莱坞制作的电影音乐剧通常情况下是在看起来像是其他地方的布景中拍摄而成的。金说那个时候电影公司的人认为在真实的城市里拍摄音乐剧是个疯狂的想法，但是它的确成功了。从此以后，它改变了电影音乐剧的命运。金·凯利称《锦城春色》是他最喜欢的电影。这部电影以歌曲《纽约，纽约》拉开了序幕。
（音乐）
史蒂夫·恩伯：一些评论家认为金·凯利最大的成功是他1951年的一部电影《花都艳舞》。这部电影获得了八个奥斯卡奖，其中还包括最佳图片奖。金的歌声、舞蹈、表演和舞蹈创作为他赢得了一个特别的奥斯卡奖。影片以十七分钟长度的芭蕾舞作为结尾。它展现了巴黎这个城市对片中男主角的影响。在这段芭蕾舞中，金·凯利和莱斯利·卡隆一起表演了乔治·格什温的《花都艳舞》。
（音乐）
雪丽·葛里菲兹：很多人认为金·凯利拍的最好的电影是影片《雨中曲》。专家认为《雨中曲》是最后一部伟大的电影音乐剧。该片首映于1952年。在其中的幕中，金·凯利边跳舞边演唱影片的主题曲。这一幕被认为是历史上的最佳电影剧情之一。金在这一幕中表现了爱情带给他的快乐。他在一个大雨如注的清冷的街道上随着歌声翩然起舞。
（音乐）
史蒂夫·恩伯：金·凯利出演了四十五部电影。他在影片中跳舞，唱歌。他出演不是音乐剧的电影。他也制作并导演影片。他还在纽约的百老汇指挥乐队表演。他出现在电视节目中，因为节目《杰克与仙豆》而获得艾美奖。
金·凯利还出演过三部曲《娱乐世界》。在这些电影中，他和另一位著名的舞蹈家弗雷德·亚斯代尔一起演出。弗雷德·亚斯代尔早在金·凯利开始跳舞的时候就已经是电影明星了。
凯利说他太大了，他跳不好亚斯代尔擅长的那种舞蹈。他说他的运动型舞蹈穿上衬衣裤子跳起来更好一些，而亚斯代尔的舞要穿得更正式些。
雪丽·葛里菲兹：金·凯利于1996年二月二号离开人世，享年八十三岁。这一年发生了很多事情。他的作品为他赢得了许多荣誉。他曾接受位于华盛顿的肯尼迪中心和美国电影协会授予他的奖章。法国政府授予他荣誉爵士头衔。克林顿总统颁给他美国国家艺术勋章。
人们说金创造了一种全新的美国舞蹈艺术，这种舞蹈融合了现代舞、踢踏舞和芭蕾舞的风格，最后以一种运动的方式表现出来。金·凯利经常说他没有人们说的那么重要。他说他真的只是一个会歌舞的人而已。
（音乐）
史蒂夫·埃伯：这里是美国之音特别英语节目，南希·斯坦巴克撰写，拉旺·戴维斯制作导演。我是史蒂夫·恩伯。
雪丽·葛里菲兹：我是雪丽·葛里菲兹。下周请在同一时间收听美国之音的《美国人物》节目。
（音乐）